Google’s Earth - awesome

Google Earth is brilliant. I found it a totally immersive experience 'travelling' around the world. I checked out things like my hometown (seeing what the new owners have done to our old house) and the other places I called home in Australia. It was also good to see a satellite view of places where I have travelled and where I live now.

Google has a policy of giving staff the time and resources to pursue their own interests, and Google Earth is the result of this policy.

There is a lot to like in this free utility- it covers the whole world and the images of populated areas are in more detail.

Google Maps is also cool and has obvious commercial outcomes for Google. Interestingly, a Google search on "maps" brought up Yahoo's similar offering (Yahoo Maps) in first place. I like Google's more, since you can overlay a map on top of the satellite image of the area. These are very USA- and Canada-centric, but I guess that makes sense.

There is a lot of potential for e-learning here - the experience is very engaging.